RELEASED ONLINE ON REPUBLIC DAY 26th JANUARY, 2012

Ashvin Kumars Inshallah Kashmir: Living Terror was released online

on the Indian Republic Day.
Inshallah Kashmir: Find the story online http://storify.com/ashvinaway/inshallah-kashmir

NOTE ON THE FILM:

"Inshallah, Kashmir: Living Terror" contains heart-wrenching stories of brutality and terror by
Indian armed forces and militants alike.
The director says, "the prequel to this film "Inshallah, football" was banned by the Indian censor
board last year*, this time all Indian citizens can watch the film free of charge on our Republic
Day via the internet."
There are half-a-million troops in Kashmir that belong to various branches of Indian armed
forces, each with its own intelligence agency that closely monitors the flow of information.
Army camps and check-posts mean scrutiny and explanations, making the shortest commute a
daunting task. Kashmiris don't speaking openly, fearing harassment and persecution. In this
atmosphere of suspicion and vigilance, shooting a film that seeks truthful testimonies is
daunting. As a result, the enormity of the situation in Kashmir has been kept hidden. Only a
handful of people in India and the rest of the world are aware of the extent of an alleged
genocide, and human rights violations that continue till today.
'Inshallah, Kashmir : Living Terror', is one of those rare documentary films in which Kashmiris
tell their stories openly. In it we see how freedom is conceded, and replaced by fear; governance,
by institutionalized oppression; and a paradise made desolate on the watch of India: a secular,
democratic republic.
"As the Indian national flag is unfurled in New Delhi and Srinagar, viewers of "Inshallah,
Kashmir" might reflect on the health of Indian democracy via the internet."
*After a media outcry protesting the ban, 'Inshallah, football' was given an 'A' certificate in June
2011. The film was finally released on DVD by Enlighten Films in late December 2011, more
than a year after its release in the rest of the world. It can now be purchased in select DVD
stores all over India.

ONLINE RELEASE ON THE INDIAN REPUBLIC DAY

On 18th January, 2012 Alipur Films uploaded the first seven minutes of the film Inshallah
Kashmir : Living Terror online. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter picked it up
and the link had over ten thousand hits in a week and generated curiosity and contempt alike.
The idea of releasing Inshallah Kashmir online and free of charge was to take the film to the
masses, and to make it accessible to as many people as possible in Kashmir, within India and
around the world. In what was possibly a first, the fill film went online on the Indian Republic
Day and had over fifteen thousand hits that day.
Director Ashvin Kumar said, One was to get around the censor board. Secondly, and more
importantly, I wanted to make it truly democratic so that people would not have to pay to watch
it.

CREDITS:
Director and Narrator: Ashvin Kumar
Co-producer: Jaaved Jaafferi
Associate Producer: Giulia Achilli
Editor: Ashvin Kumar
Associate Editor: Yashodara Udupa
Assistant Editor: Aditi Joshi
Camera: Ashvin Kumar, Shivraj Santhakumar
Music performed by: Sajad Bin Mohammad
Sound recordists: Roland Heap, Udit Duseja
Sound editor: Nora Wendel
Text quotations from: Agha Shahid Ali The Country without a Post Office, Basharat Peer
Curfewed Night, Nitasha Kaul Kashmir: A place of blood and memory
Kashmir Research Consultants: Mohammad Umar Baba, Wasim Khalid
Kashmiri Translators: Ajaz Kotroo, Muhammad Gowhar Bhat
Special thanks: Neil Sadwelkar, Dheights studio
Interviews with: Sajad Malik, Parvez Ahmed, Khemlata Wakhloo, O.N. Wakhloo, Shameena
Bano Baba, Bashir Baba, Omar Abdullah, Abdul Hamid, Wajahat Habibullah, Parveena
Ahangar, Zahoor Ahmed Hajam, Haseena, Bashir Ahmeds family, Sameera Begum, Dr. Amit
Wanchoo, Abdul Qadeer Dar, Manzoor, Ghulam Mansoor, Parvez Khurram, Vrinda Grover,
Parvez Imroz, Zoona, Javed Pathan, Ghulam Mohd Pathan.

SYNOPSIS:
A Kashmiri poet has said of the Indian occupation of Kashmir, they make a desolation and call
it peace.
Once the epitome of a syncretic, mystical culture, a deep heritage of learning, of arts and craft;
the crucible of Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufi-Islam; verdant forests, snow-capped peaks,
populated by a guileless, beautiful people; till the dark cloud of terror enveloped the Kashmir
valley overnight.
This film is the story of the conflict recounted as personal history, and that of present-day
Kashmir. A series of counterpointed testimonies, the heartbreaking coming-of-age of a people
brutalized by two decades of militancy and its terrible response. Together they provide a sense of
what it is like to be living terror and the irony of living with terror under the watch of a secular,
democratic republic, India.
Today Kashmir is all about army, crackdowns, curfews,
widows, orphans, rape, enforced disappearances, fakeencounters, mass graves, sadistic torture and trauma, and
new categories of people like 'half-widows'. Twenty years
of atrocities have altered the average Kashmiris perception
of normalcy. And yet, there isn't a more congenial,
generous, warm-hearted and cultured individual than she.
So, military and paradise, bulletproof jackets and the veil;
breathtaking vistas of mountains and crystal lakes are
projected through barbed wire. Darkened army bunkers, the
alert eyes of battle-ready soldiers watch over not an enemy
or a border but school children, women going shopping,
men delivering goods.
And the certainty of yet another militant attack, blood,
limbs, followed by reprisals by the armed forces. Such is the
state of normalcy into which children are born and raised.
A cycle institutionalized and ritualized since the advent of
militancy in 1991.
The filmmakers were able to record rare and precious footage under the guise of making a movie
on Kashmiri football (www.inshallahfootball.com). The rare, unmediated access has resulted in
footage that very few people have managed to record.
It gives a human face to militancy and the plight of the average Kashmiri. It demands a solution
to this endless and mindless conflict.
This is the story of Indian democracy, the grand experiment that was founded with Indian
independence from the British. Of how it has been tested in Kashmir, and found wanting.
Inshallah Kashmir : Living Terror answers comprehensively the question, often asked in
exasperation by those who live in the rest-of-India, what the hell is it that the Kashmiris want?

PRESS - INSHALLAH KASHMIR: LIVING TERROR

January 18, 2012
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni21322724/
http://moifightclub.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/votd-7-minutes-of-ashvin-kumars-inshallahkashmir-living-terror/
http://madaboutmoviez.com/2012/01/18/preview-watch-the-first-7-minutes-of-ashvin-kumarsinshallah-kashmir-living-terror/#more-3704
January 19, 2012
http://dearcinema.com/news/inshallah-football-directors-next-to-release-online-to-avoidcensorship/3226
http://lov-3.net/inshallah-football-director%E2%80%99s-next-to-release-online-to-avoidcensorship/
January 20, 2012
http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/ashvin-comes-with-inshallah-kashmir-21063.aspx
January 21, 2012
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Bypassing-censorboard-film-on-Kashmir-releasing-on-Jan-26/articleshow/11566828.cms

http://heartcommand.com/why-the-censor-bored/
http://www.stateobserver.com/newsdet.aspx?q=18000
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/news.aspx?ndid=26688
January 22, 2012
http://www.firstpost.com/india/who-cares-for-the-censor-board-when-theres-youtube189981.html
January 23, 2012
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/82/201201222012012202011517836c5e5c9/Censorsensibility.html?pageno=1
http://blog.thekashmirwalla.com/2012/01/inshallah-kashmir-living-terror-preview-the-firstseven-minutes/
January 25, 2012
(review) http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws250112Going.asp
(review) http://kashmiroralhistoryinitiative.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/inshallah-kashmir-livingterror-voices-from-a-lost-valley/
January 26, 2012
http://kashmirwatch.com/news.php/2012/01/26/8216-inshallah-kashmir-8217-to-go-online.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Director-tobypass-censor-board-release-film-on-Kashmir-online-today/articleshow/11635523.cms
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_is-this-what-we-call-democracy_1642515
January 27, 2012
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/watch-full-length-inshallah-kashmir/224781-8-66.html
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/ENT-watch-inshallah-kashmir-full-movie-2793450.html
http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/3469/video_inshallah_kashmir_living/
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/27/kashmir-movie-triggers-new-controversy/
http://www.indiantelevision.com/aac/y2k12/aac125.php
January 29, 2012
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/filmmaker-circumvents-censor-board-releases-film-onkashmir-online/222382

January 31, 2012

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-9-oclock-news/why-is-kashmir-a-volatiletopic/222593?hp
http://www.timesnow.tv/Debate-Controversy-over-film-on-Kashmir-1/videoshow/4394886.cms
February 4, 2012
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/newswallah-bollywood-edition-11/
http://www.thekashmirwalla.com/2012/02/jashn-e-azadi-inshallah-kashmir-and-now-harud/
February 6, 2012
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/masala-art/gagged-a-bound-films-on-kashmir-fight-their-ownwars
February 19, 2012
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Banned-works-ata-computer-near-you/articleshow/11949307.cms
February 23, 2012
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2924231.ece
March 18, 2012
http://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/2012/mar/180312-Click-Play-Watch.htm
GET IN TOUCH:
Website: www.ashvinkumar.com
www.inshallahkashmir.com
Twitter: @ashvinkumar
Facebook: www.facebook.com/inshallahkashmir
Email: film@alipur.com
Phone: +91-8806664754